Thanks to all of you for being a great audience. In this spirit, I'd like to share a behind-the-scenes peek into what happens between the final stages of writing a book and the work that takes place between then and the on-sale date.
I am in the final stages of cross country season, which means my bandwidth is completely devoted to fine-tuning the workouts and race strategies. Cross is usually my refuge, a way of blowing off steam after a morning of research and writing and hours in the infusion room. But now it's the other way around, my hours of writing the light part of my day.
Not that cross country is demanding — it's not. There's just an emotional weight that comes with championship season. It's like holding my breath, waiting to see what the next three weeks of racing reveal.
So, I continue writing my fiction project, amazed at where the story tells me it wants to go. I have literally planned each chapter right down to the very end but the characters are already pulling me in a new direction. It's fascinating.
In the middle of all this, as we have discussed, is book promotion. You'd think that I'd have the game nailed by now but I realize that I have been a passive observer to this point in my career, rounding up blurbs and waiting for the marketing pros to deliver my bestseller. It has worked, despite my feeble strategy. But now, in between writing the saga of Dash Thorogood and dreaming up race-pace peaking workouts, I'm doing the deep dive online to teach myself about the world of creating a bestseller.
Before I go on, I blathered about blurbs in the past few missives, so I would be remiss in not sharing a few. George Hirsch, Chairman Emeritus of the New York Road Runners Club and former publisher of Runner's World, says The Long Run "may be the best book on running that I have read." Bob Babbitt, formerly of Competitor Magazine, calls it a "masterpiece." Steve Magness, author of Do Hard Things, writes that TLR Is "a powerful exploration of how we learned to embrace endurance, not just as a physical test, but as a defining part of our modern identity. A must read!" And two-time Olympic medalist Grant Fisher writes that the book "captures both the passion of the hardcore runner and the curiosity of the beginner."
I share those with trepidation. I am not a self-promotional guy. My MO is to keep a low profile, all the better to avoid criticism. And yet if TLR is to find an audience, I need to market not just the book, but me. So I have been relentless in pursuing blurbs. Now it's on to pre-sales and substacks, which my research tells me are vital to a book's success. How come I never knew that? While I'm at it, I am told I need to take a few more selfies and maybe not wear hoodies everywhere I go.
There's my promotional update on The Long Run. On sale date is April 14. You can buy a copy right this minute on Amazon and other online retailers. Please do. And then let me know. Email me a screenshot of the receipt. in return, I'll send you a few free advance chapters.
We move now from blurbs to presales to looking good on camera. I have the feeling that if I want to go all-in on book promotion I should make the grand gesture of stating I plan to run another marathon sometime soon. But as much as I love running, the trails are my refuge and escape, not another source of accomplishment. I find my jam in coaching others, not coaching myself. Twenty days to State!